Harry Uzumaki
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: A small experiment on my part. Crossover between Harry Potter and the Naruto universe, never before seen quite like this. Please Read & Review!
1. Chapter 1

Title: Harry Uzumaki and the School of Magic

Author: Joshua

Disclaimer: JK Rowling has Harry, and whoever else from the books show up in these plots. Naruto, unfortunately, is the creation of Masashi Kishimoto. I don't own either and I'm not making any money from all this, so don't bother suing me.

Summary: The Wizarding World and the Ninja World are closer than most realize. After a task force of multi-nation ninjas, the Order of the Phoenix and several hundred MLE armies fight in the Third Great Ninja War/Dark Lord War of Europe, the sons of the greatest heroes are orphaned and raised together in Konoha.

Author's Notes: Voldemort/aka Tom M. Riddle, met Madara Uchiha shortly after graduating Hogwarts. They helped one another gain power and resources the other couldn't have. Voldemort gave Madara magical enhancements, while Madara gave Voldemort ninja training and several special powers only ninja ever have. Voldemort warded Madara's hideouts and hid his secrets, Madara trained Voldemort's forces, the future Death Eaters, who in turn trained others. The Order discovered this connection shortly after it's inception and made it a point to send envoys to the Hidden Ninja Villages they could find, which weren't many, but they managed to create an alliance, and started a task force of multi-nation ninjas coupled with Magical Law Enforcement and Order wizards and witches. In return for the payment of these ninja services, specially-trained Hit-Wizards were sent to the allied ninja villages and became ninja-wizards with the honorary rank of 'Special Jounin'. At the same time this alliance came into being, the Third Great Ninja War had started and very soon these ninja-wizards were put into the field and to task. They succeeded where most thought they would fail, magic being the great equalizer that it is. Almost ten years this went on, trading wizards and ninja back and forth between the two worlds, until finally the Third Ninja War came to an epic conclusion. The war with the Dark Lord Voldemort was another matter, however. Until one night, a young witch applied for a job as a teacher of Divination at the magic school Hogwarts...

Story:

The year was 1947.

Europe was still picking up the pieces of the great war machine of Nazi Germany, some countries still celebrating, most in mourning. The other side of the world, the Magical world, was also still picking up the pieces and celebrating and mourning, because barely two years before marked the end of more than half a century of terror from the Dark Lord Grindelwald with Dumbledore's famous defeat of him.

And Tom Riddle had just committed murder for the sixth time, creating his third horcrux and hiding it away. Now he was on the run and Europe was still a bit too... hot for someone like him to just be wandering around. So he got on a ship and went to India. Days after getting off the ship, he had disappeared and no one who would've been looking for him could ever have found him.

A month later, he walked into the lair of the most evil being he had ever faced, and he'd met Grindelwald once or twice.

The masked man stayed in the shadows, never letting the young man see more than a shape or vague form, never any details. Then he asked the wizard a question.

"How did you find me?"

Tom Marvolo Riddle, soon to be the Dark Lord Voldemort, answered confidently, "You probably wouldn't believe me, so I'll save us both some frustration," he pulled out his wand and whispered, "Reducto!"

The stone table sitting innocently off at the side exploded into pebbles and fine sand.

"I used magic. Relatively easy if you know what you're doing, and I certainly do."

The masked man didn't react, either to the display of destructive power nor to the arrogant tone of his... guest. He just sat there in the shadows, silently observing the dark wizard, one of his eyes oddly visible, almost highlighted against the shadows. Riddle chose not to look into that eye for too long. Finally, he asked him another question.

"What do you want?"

Riddle smiled, a ghoulish smirk of pure evil as he answered with one word.

"Power."

_Continued..._

Author's Notes: First off, this is a bit of an experiment for me. And I can honestly say that while the overall HP/Naruto crossover has been done, I have yet to see it done in _this_ way before. So, I'm teasing everybody with these first few chapters and see how they like it. If you'd like to see more then by all means request it and feel free to offer suggestions about where you might like to see the story go to. I can't guarantee any kind of update rate, but I had all these first few chapters already written, which could very easily have just been the first half of one giant chapter, but like I said, this is an experiment to see how I do with the writing/chapter style, as well as with the unique characters to be used.

Let me know what you think! Please Read and Review!


	2. Chapter 2

Twenty-Two Years Later

"Why did we agree to come here again?" a red-haired woman screamed at her male partner.

"You said you wanted to spend more time together," he screamed back at her over the noise of the battle going on around them. "This was one of the few ways I could think of to get it!"

"By going across who knows how many continents and oceans to fight in somebody else's war?" she yelled at him, her green eyes flashing with emotion.

He shrugged and ducked down when beams of light and fireballs shot overhead.

"There's also the fact that we get to meet new and interesting people," he pointed out, giving her that prankster look he knew she liked.

She frowned and flipped her red hair away from her face while giving him a sour look. "We could have just eloped and gone on a honeymoon," she argued, not really into it.

He shrugged again and glanced up over their shelter. "You'd be bored before the first week was through," he chuckled at her. "Oh wait, hold on a second."

He stood up and threw out his arm, holding something in his hand as he did so, moving too fast for her to see. A heartbeat later there was a deafening crack and a flash of light and he was gone. Moments after that, the rain of spellfire and jutsu petered out and he reappeared with another loud crack and flash of light.

"Have to figure out a way to make that less noticeable, dear," the redhead said at his feet, dragging him back down below cover.

"I'm working on it," he whined.

"Uh, are you two finished here? Or do you want us to come back later?" a voice whispered from in front of their cover point.

They both blinked and glanced up over the debris they had hidden behind and looked at who had spoken.

A tall, dark haired man with brown eyes in crimson and black robes stood holding a wand. He wore a pair of spectacles and his hair was messy and unkempt, but he held the stature and attitude of a warrior at the ready. Beside him was a young red-haired witch in black and silver robes, holding her own wand at the ready, keeping an eye in her partner's blind spot.

"Uh, is it over already?" the blond haired, blue eyed ninja crouched down behind cover asked.

James Potter smirked and shook his head while he held out a hand for his friend, Minato Namikaze to help him to his feet. Minato then did the same for his companion, Kushina Uzumaki. Lily Evans Potter gave the clear signal and the four quickly moved to a better location, thankfully no one shot anything at them.

"Really wish I could apparate as fast as you do, Minato," James commented, peering around a corner to make sure the coast was clear. He tapped his glasses, activating the charms on them, and continued speaking, "Would make these missions of ours go a lot easier, that's for sure."

"It's not... whatever it is you call it," Minato sighed. "It's a combination jutsu, of elements, seals, and space/time manipulation, letting me move at the speed of light. You can't move while you're... moving, right?"

"Apparition is a compression of the body's molecules and phase-shifting them through a sub-atomic wormhole opened and controlled by the user's magic," Lily explained for them. "From what you're telling me, you actually phase-shift your body into a higher energy state for a limited amount of time within range of those seals that you throw everywhere."

"Actually..." Minato started to say.

"Guys?" Kushina interrupted with more than a bit of impatience, "So not the time right now!"

"Also, cute as it is when you talk technical, honey," James kissed his wife on the cheek, "it's really, really boring when you talk jargon like that."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Lily rolled her eyes.

"It's clear," he reported. "How much further to the rendezvous point?"

"Another click," Minato replied, having memorized the general layout of the area already from maps and earlier encounters. "All of it through ambush terrain."

"Really wish Sirius could be here for this," James commented as they broke cover and ran down the street as fast as they could move, "He'd get a kick out of this shit."

"Well, sooner we get to the rendezvous, sooner we can back him and Frank up," Lily retorted.

"What do you want me to do? We're already running!" James exclaimed at his wife.

"Flying is too risky," Kushina reminded them, "And don't worry, the Ino-Shika-Cho team can watch out for them. Provided they don't stop for a bite to eat before battle."

James and Minato laughed while Lily smiled at Kushina.

And then a kunai with a tag on it landed three feet to their left.

"PROTEGO MAXIMA!" James and Lily simulcast, a domed energy shield covering the ninja weapon moments before it exploded, protecting them from the blast.

Kushina's hair came alive around her and caught another two kunai coming in from a rooftop further down the street and threw them back before they could explode. Minato flashed through handseals and threw out his shuriken at several key locations. Single shuriken were multiplied by a factor of ten and sparks flew off the rooftops and there were screams that suddenly cut short.

They immediately dove for cover in an alleyway between two darkened buildings and took a moment to analyze the situation. "Who's protecting whom?" James teased the ninjas.

"We protect each other, that's our nindo, our ninja-way," Kushina remarked.

"Well, that's just what the Marauders do, plain and simple," James bragged, however his expression was serious and his eyes were searching for enemies.

"We've got to get past this street," Minato said. "We need a distraction. I can take out the ambush nests, I just need some time to..."

"Yeah, got that covered," James adjusted his robes and cast a few quick spells on them, turning the silk into an iron and steel-weave that worked good as armor, and where he could afford it, some bits to actual armor, capable of deflecting or blocking anything up through the hex level of curses. He also charged a device he had on his belt, made for him and only him by his wife. Once he cast a Protego spell on it, it then generated a full-body covering of the spell for up to sixty seconds at a time. She was still working on the bugs and getting the time extended, but so far the early model prototype was working wonders for him.

"Wait, James!" Lily started to protest.

"I'll go with him," Kushina nodded, and quickly changed her vest-jacket for Lily's robes. They already knew what they would do and spent no more time arguing over it.

James and Kushina ran out onto the street, racing for the rendezvous point, sticking to the sidewalk and edge of the buildings for some cover. They were getting fired at with ninja weapons and curses almost instantly.

Minato had already run up the side of the building by this point, and Lily had pulled out a charmed platform that elevated her to the rooftops just as quickly. She then pulled out a small device and cast a quick series of charms on it before handing it to Minato, who then threw it high into the air, angling for where he could see the ambush nests were set up at. Seconds later, there was a blinding flash of light and the sound of a bomb going off at close range, except no bomb had gone off, just a bright light making a big sound. Before those affected by the flashbang could recover, Minato, in a yellow flash of light, was in their midst, making sure they would not be a problem for the team any longer.

Lily took her platform back down to street level and quickly caught up with James and Kushina, shooting off some spells at the few that managed to escape Minato's attack. The 'distraction' team managed to take out some of their own attackers at the same time too, and thankfully neither was harmed and the precautions both had taken paid off more than once.

Half an hour later, they were at the rendezvous point and met up with three other teams comprised of both wizards and ninja. Sirius Black, Frank and Alice Longbottom had been paired up with the Ino-Shika-Cho trio from Konoha. Remus Lupin, Fabian and Gideon Prewitt (twin brothers) were teamed up with chuunin from Suna, named Baki, Maki and Isago.

"What? This is it? Where are the others?" Sirius demanded once everyone had arrived at the park.

"Where do you think?" Gideon growled, clenching his wand.

"We got separated from Molly, Arthur and their team," Lily reported, "but then their objective is different from ours. I had hoped that some of the other assault teams could have made it though..."

"They're fine, I'm sure of it," James put his hand on his wife's shoulder to comfort her. "They've got good people with them."

"Yeah, those brothers from Kumo are... something else," Minato sweat-dropped even as he said it.

"I'm beginning to regret introducing them to rap music," Lily chuckled, which elicited at least a few laughs from everyone present.

"We'll give it another two minutes, then we have to move out," Shikaku said once the laughter stopped.

They all nodded their agreement and took the time to rest while they could.

The time came and went, and the task force of wizards and ninjas went with it, only to run into the other two teams they had been waiting on right outside. They looked harried and had been on their way inside to the rendezvous, but seeing them all moving out already, they did their best to hold off rest and fell in. One of the teams was comprised of three experienced Aurors and another chuunin team from Suna, and the other was of Order members and the team from Kumo.

Peter Pettigrew, Elphias Doge, and Edgar Bones all looked worn out and were wheezing heavily, while their ninja comrades all looked as fresh as ever, but between the two muscular brothers, both with afros and one with shades the other with heavy armbands, and the blond woman with them, it was hard to keep up.

"I thought you three were going to be with our sister and her husband?" Gideon hissed at the Kumo-nin.

The brother wearing the shades opened his mouth to respond, but the blond woman, who had introduced herself as Nii Yugito, which made her given name Yugito, spoke over him. "The other teams were already in place and we ensured that they would not be attacked. When Bones' team got taken out by spellfire in the first five minutes, we retrieved them and offered to fill the void. We just have to protect the runts, right?"

"That would be correct," Minato responded before anyone else could start an argument. "That's a good call, and the strategy depends on there being enough of us to turn the tide. I trust that you utilized the defenses we left behind?"

"Of course," the older brother with the armbands scoffed. "Let's get this over with."

Minato signaled and they all began to move out, some of the more out-of-shape wizards whining a bit, but they quickly shut up after some glares from the nearby ninja.

Quarter of an hour later, they had reached the objective and thankfully there had been no casualties. Yet.

It was an abandoned factory in Essex somewhere, it had been used for weapons manufacturing during the War, but it had been shut down for years now. Except, as the force discovered, it was no longer abandoned, and they couldn't quite say that it wasn't still being used for weapons making.

"Shyeah!" the younger of the brothers from Kumo cursed, looking out at the night through his shades. "Yo, we in trouble bro, don'tchya know?"

"Yeah, I can see better than you can behind those shades of yours," his older brother growled.

Arrayed against the task force was over three dozen dark wizards, called Death Eaters, and twice that many ninjas wearing identical masks, which made them ANBU level, because a ninja doesn't wear a mask until he's at _least_ that level, even if it's only in his head. Of course ANBU were a cut above the rest, the ninja answer to SWAT and SEALS and Army Rangers all put together. But there was always the elite jounin, the A+ Rank ninja that could take out ANBU like they were fresh genin sent to slaughter.

There just so happened to be six in the task force.

"Spread out, you all know the plan," Shikaku gave the order. Minato signaled to everyone and they all went to their positions, the ninja gathering chakra and preparing jutsu, while the wizards pulled out their wands and prepared spells.

Except in the case of seven people; the team from Kumo, Minato, Kushina, James and Lily. They pulled out their primary weapons and means of defense, and rushed the doors of the factory. James started transfiguring everything in sight into a vicious animal or a trap or even from something harmful into something harmless.

Lily started casting and setting up the ward that would be going up around the factory, to prevent anyone from escaping this. She was actually coordinating with the other teams that hadn't been in the assault run, channeling the power they were casting at a distance and focusing it into what they needed.

Minato was throwing kunai every which way and blocking incoming attacks from other ninja, and thanks to borrowing Lily's spell-armor, a few of the low-powered spells and curses send their way. Kushina, likewise was defending Lily as she worked the magic, but also was counter-attacking with anything and everything she could. She even created a couple of Shadow Clones to help out Minato and James.

Once the wards were up, which only took about five minutes, a new record, the entire defense perimeter of Death Eaters and Death ANBU were focused on the attackers position. They would be overrun in seconds or be killed in less if something didn't happen soon.

Which is right about when the other teams started launching ranged attacks against the factory and Kumo's team coupled with Peter, Elphias, and Edgar were taking advantage of the weakened defenses on the opposite side of the building and snuck in to find out what was going on and disrupt it, preferably by blowing something up so the rest of the teams could rush in and finish the job.

The battle was pitched against the defenders. Despite all the traps and ambushes they had laid, the wizards and ninja matched against them outclassed them in every field. Nevertheless, the task force was outnumbered four to one, and that was just the guards on the outside, nothing yet to speak of what was going on inside the factory.

"Kusoh!" Kushina cursed, tick marks going off on her head. "What is taking them so long?"

Minato flashed through handseals while dodging attacks, thankful that the more powerful curses were slower than shuriken and kunai and that they lit up on his chakra senses like fireworks going off. Magic wasn't chakra and chakra wasn't magic, but they still reacted to one another. A great gust of wind suddenly burst forth across the battlefield, knocking weapons and spells and jutsu alike off target, and even knocked over a few of the enemy.

James was right behind him in casting transfiguration after transfiguration at a speed that boggled the mind, like he just had to point his wand and 'poof!' something on the battlefield was transformed just like that. Mostly he fashioned barriers out of stone, earth and iron out of debris, but sometimes a random animal would crawl out of the wood work and have to deal with bunnies straight from a Monty Python film, or tiny dragons and griffins.

Lily, meanwhile, was preoccupied with maintaining the wards to do much of anything else, and Kushina was protecting her position. And that was chafing her more than a little bit.

"That does it!" she suddenly screamed and her entire form suddenly exploded with chakra, her red hair waving around her like nine tails of fury. "I've lost patience! MINATO! Here I go!"

"What? Kushina...?" Minato looked, back stunned.

"Uh, what's she planning?" James hesitantly asked his comrade.

Almost in reply, Kushina finished powering up and made a single ram-seal before nearly a hundred chakra chains suddenly shot out from her, going in every direction, around obstacles and allies, and trapping, piercing or restraining the enemy forces, before shooting forth for the factory and piercing the walls in several areas. Minato and James sweat-dropped.

"Nice girlfriend you got there," James jibbed Minato.

"Brilliant Kushina! See if you can get a few more chains around the corner pillars inside!" Lily cackled.

Minato gave a mute glare to the messy-haired wizard.

"Yeah, well... shut up!" James flushed and send a few more dragons out after the few ninja and Death Eaters that Kushina hadn't managed to subdue.

Minato finished the rest off with a single yellow flash.

"You know, against any decent shinobi worth his hitai-ate," Kushina commented once the enemy had stopped attacking, either because they were retreating or dead, "there would be somebody that would have figured out the logistics of that technique and developed a counter after seeing a few times. Yet here we are, you've used it more times than I've used Kagebunshin, and no sign of a counter technique."

"Well," Minato flushed, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, "It is a pretty awesome technique, plus not too many seal-masters around that could counter it. And I am a pretty awesome ninja too."

"That, or they're all morons," Kushina shot down his preening.

"Oh please," Lily signed, finally moving the focus of the wards to a mini-ward stone she'd brought along, it would last for an hour or so, more than enough time for them to finish the mission. "It's fairly obvious what he does, but the only counter available, short of phase-shifting all of his targets to an even faster frame of time where their molecules could actually phase through any incoming attacks, is to create decoy markers and create a field of influence that warps his senses so that he can't tell the difference between the decoys and his own markers that he places."

The two ninja blinked, Minato blushing with a different kind of embarrassment now.

"Could you actually do that?" Kushina asked. Minato was also interested in knowing, but was too embarrassed to ask.

"Hm, yeah I could actually," she replied after some thought. "With the current information I have, it would take me three days or so to prepare, but once I had the preparations complete, I would only need to wait for you to use the technique."

Both Konoha-nin glanced at one another and silently shared the same thought that Lily's husband always had whenever she talked about her work. _'Scary. Very scary. I am so glad she's on our side!'_

"The phase-shifting targets to intangibility, however, that would take me a good solid seven to eight months, unless I had access to something that could already warp space/time," she continued on, further cementing Minato and Kushina's thoughts.

Right about then, part of the factory exploded, a plume of smoke and dust reaching almost three times the height of the factory itself, spreading across the battlefield and dispersing after several long moments.

"Looks like the infiltration team has started," James observed. "Lily?"

"We're set out here, reinforcements are good to move in," she reported.

"Lily and I can handle the perimeter until back-up arrives," Kushina advised, "You and James had best go on in and support those 'black thunder' brothers and the rest, Minato."

"Ah," he nodded. He and James shared a look before James accepted a charm from Lily and a three-pronged kunai from Minato. He disappeared with a soft crack of noise, dis-apparating into the factory. Half a moment later, Minato vanished in a flash of yellow light.

Kushina and Lily shared their own look and giggled at their guy's behavior. And then a green light filled the windows of the factory and another series of explosions rang out. The redheads next look was one of worry and they didn't even need a third look to confirm they were thinking the same thing. They quickly raced inside.

It was the first of three times that James and Lily Potter, the Yellow Flash and the Crimson Death* would face the Dark Lord Voldemort and his mysterious masked ninja partner. Well, the first of the three times they face them and escaped with their lives, defying the both of them repeatedly. After those three battles, each would face the wizard and the ninja one last time.

_Continued..._

Author's Notes: (*_Crimson Death _is the title given to Kushina Uzumaki in the story "New Chance" by author Hektols. It's use here is primarily meant as the highest form of flattery, but is likewise used without prior permission. Still, I did nominate and vote on that name when he was polling for it, so I have to agree that it's a perfect fit for her nickname. As for Kushina's and everyone else's abilities and skills in this chapter, I'm mostly working with what has been "said" about them. Also, at the time of writing this, I had yet to see the latest Naruto Shippuden movie so worked with what I had at the time. Kushina's hair in the manga was shown to have a life of it's own and her 'chakra chains' were identified immediately by those that could as being hers, so I'm making both part of her repertoire along with the Kagebunshin. James Potter was said to be a Transfiguration Genius. Lily Potter was said to be a master at Charms and was the "Smartest Witch of Her Generation", and you see plenty of stuff that Hermione came up with on her own in the Deathly Hallows book and movies. Compound that with completing her NEWTs, an extra year of school and another five years to work on stuff and you get the idea behind this Lily Potter. Hope that explains things!)_  
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	3. Chapter 3

Twelve Years Later

"This is too hasty, reckless even," the voice growled out from the shadows.

"Perhaps," the tall figure walking along the street remarked, "but the chances that this is a false prophecy? I have been searching for nearly two years for the one that was said to vanquish me, and what other Dark Lord could there be? After all, no other Dark Lord in all the history of magic and the world has ever been so feared that even my name is Taboo!"

"Arrogance is the first step towards downfall," the shadowed figure stepped out to reveal a masked ninja in pitch black robes, with only a single white and red crest of a fan on the back. "I know that much from personal experience."

Voldemort conceded the point, pulling out two things. His wand, and a fat gray rat.

"Which is why, my friend, I took the precautions that I did. While I may not be gifted with an Eternal Doujutsu, I have further ways of ensuring my immortality. But this prophesy concerns me greatly. One with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord? Born to those that have thrice defied him? I can think of only two families that fit that profile, and prophecies aside, they're dangerous enough on their own that I would feel it necessary to eradicate them for all time."

"Why the Potters first?" Madara asked after they passed a few more streets of the small village.

"The Longbottoms and Potters are no different before my wand. But I really couldn't resist wiping the Potters out first once my... little pet here," he indicated the rat in his hand, "told me that they were hiding in the same village _Dumbledore's _family is from. It's a slap in the face to the old bastard and will draw him out while I take care of the Longbottoms in the confusion. Why the sudden interest in my welfare, my friend?"

"I have heard... rumors, that the jinchuriki of the bijuu are passing on their... burdens. Suna, Kumo, Mizu, and even Konoha... the bijuu will be transferred to new hosts soon. My plans will need to be put in place if I am to achieve my goals. I will need you and your Death Eaters for some of those plans to succeed."

"And you will have it, my support, my forces, and my help. It is the least that I can do after all," Voldemort chuckled darkly.

"Taking stupid risks endangers yourself and my plans," Madara glared out from the eye holes of his mask with blood red eyes, "It would be... unwise of you to disrupt my plans with hasty risks."

"I will not..." they both stopped in the middle of the road and looked to the East.

"Jiraiya of the Sannin," they both hissed with recognition, having sensed the chakra of the ninja as he entered the village of Godric's Hollow.

"Go, do what you must, I will delay him," Madara said. "And lose the rat, he's ugly."

Voldemort sneered and dropped the rat to the ground before commanding it, "Hide yourself Wormtail. We wouldn't want your... friends to learn of your true allegiance, would we? Wait for me outside the home. And in case I forgot to say it, thank you for betraying your school chums and telling me the secret of the Potters, Pettigrew. You will be sufficiently rewarded in the near future."

He turned and walked down the street, drawing up his hood as he did, and then turned down a driveway that no one else in the village could even see. As he stepped across the ward-line, alarms went off inside the house and everywhere else the Order of the Phoenix resided. Five men dropped what they were doing and raced to get to Godric's Hollow as fast as they could. By the time they got there, it was already too late.

One Hour Later

Hagrid, Jiraiya and Sirius Black stared down at the smoldering pile of rubble that had once been the hidden safe house of their friends, James and Lily Potter. Right in front of them were two bodies, wrapped in cloaks, side by side. They had both been dead for not even an hour, but to the three men, it felt like a lifetime.

"Duh-duh-Dumbledore's order were-were fer me ta take... ta take Harry to his relatives house. He-he'll be safe there," Hagrid was the one to finally break the silence.

"Give Harry to me, Hagrid," Sirius said, "I'm his godfather."

"Dumbledore's orders, Sirius. Harry here has to go to his relatives," Hagrid shook his wild mane, gently cradling the sleeping babe in his arms.

"Hagrid," Jiraiya's voice was devoid of the normal joviality and camaraderie they were both used to hearing from the Sannin. "Dumbledore, while a formidable wizard and a respected leader, doesn't know what happened here tonight. No one in the world will ever truly know what happened here tonight."

"I can make some pretty good guesses," Sirius growled, tightly gripping his wand. "Wormtail!"

"Yeah, I remember who it was that told me the Secret, after all," Jiraiya said darkly.

"What? But... Sirius, I thought you were... I just read the secret off a slip of paper Dumbledore kept!" Hagrid exclaimed.

"We switched... oh god, it's all my fault!" Sirius started to cry.

"Why do you think I insisted on hearing the secret from the Secret-Keeper directly?" Jiraiya pointed out. "I already suspected Wormtail as the traitor, I just needed to flush him out. That's why I was coming here tonight, to warn James and Lily and to maybe switch the Secret-Keeper around to me. I... I was too late..."

All three men stood there for several moments longer, mourning their friends, filled with regret. Finally, Jiraiya straightened his posture, his eyes hard, and his muscles taut. He turned to Hagrid and took the sleeping baby from his arms, being extra gently with the dark-haired boy.

"Hagrid, I'm taking Harry with me," he said firmly.

"B-but, Dumbledore's orders...?" Hagrid whimpered.

"Are that of a leader protecting his asset. Neither of you know the details, it was considered a high level secret, even amongst the Order, but as the primary liaison between Konoha and the Ministry and the Order, I know as much about the situation as Dumbledore himself. And while I agree that Harry needs to be hidden away, here in England behind wards meant for dark wizards is not sufficient protection. Also... James and I talked about how he hoped Harry would turn out. They... they were going to spend Christmas with Minato and Kushina in Konoha..." the tears were freely flowing now.

"Sirius, while it's certainly your right under tradition to take and raise Harry on your own... I'm taking him to Konoha. Minato and Kushina will look after him. It's what both James and Lily wanted."

Sirius nodded.

"I remember that talk," he said, still tearing up, but calming down from his earlier rage. "I was with Lily in the kitchen with Harry when you and James were talking about that. I asked her if she was sure she wanted me of all people to take care of our cub here. She said better Kushina and Minato than me, but better me than her sister or any of her other relatives. I kind of thought she was joking at the time, but having never met her sister or other relatives, I can't say for certain."

"But that's where Dumbledore wants him ta go!" Hagrid grumbled.

White maned Sage and black haired Auror looked up and glared at the half-giant. Said half-giant whimpered and backed down, fiddling with his shaggy beard a bit.

"I... I'm coming with you," Sirius finally said to Jiraiya. "It's the least I can do, and I think I still have enough pull with the government to get some kind of ambassadorship set up. But..."

"Ah, Wormtail," Jiraiya solemnly nodded his head. "Trust me, he won't get far. But right now he's probably running. He'll know we're after him. Let's let him run around, tire himself out, then we'll corner him and put him in a nice rat trap I've been saving for the traitor."

Sirius shivered. "Ugh, you and your toads. Creeps a bloke out."

"Get your things and affairs in order, we leave in seven hours," Jiraiya ordered. "Hagrid, report to Dumbledore, tell him that Sirius and I are taking Harry to a safe place. I'm going to see about tying up loose ends. Where's Remus?"

"I..."

"JAMES! LILY! HARRY!" a hysteric cry from only a few meters away.

"SHHH!" the three grown-men hissed with their fingers over their lips at the hysteric werewolf that had just Apparated in. Then they pointed at the baby.

"Sorry," he whispered, wincing at his blunder. And then he looked further down. "No..." he gasped.

"Remus takes care of Harry while the rest of us takes care of business," Jiraiya pronounced. "C'mon Mooney, we have things to discuss." He turned to lead the ragged man away.

"B-but..." he pointed at the bodies.

"Not to worry," the Sage replied, gently handing Harry over to him. He then flashed through hand seals; Boar, Dog, Monkey, Bird, and Ram. He put his left thumb under an open wound he'd received earlier and placed the collected blood onto his right palm and slammed the hand onto the ground. "_Kuchiyose no jutsu_!"

An explosion of white smoke filled the area and quickly dispersed, leaving behind a mid-sized green toad with four ridges running down its back. Of course mid-sized for a Toad Summons means that it was larger around and taller than all of the surrounding houses. The toad quickly, but reverently stuck out its tongue and picked up the bodies of James and Lily Potter and placed them in it's mouth. It then vanished in another explosion of white smoke.

"They'll be taken care of. They're heroes as far as the Ninja World is concerned. Also their instructions were quite clear about how to handle their funeral arrangements, I'm sure you remember, eh?"

"Yes, yes I do," Remus nodded, the tension that had built earlier being released with each breath he took.

"Buried where no one can find them or use their bodies, blood, or ashes against those left behind," Sirius said, remembering and reciting the oath they all took whenever the topic came up about their deaths.

"I'll take care of that," Jiraiya promised. "But for now, we must take care of Harry. Mourning our friends will have to come later. Remus, take Harry to this location and wait for me and Sirius to arrive. Don't let Harry out of your sight for one moment. I'll speak to Dumbledore and everyone else. But... on the off chance that Dumbledore does show up, don't let him near Harry."

"What? Why not?" Remus asked, surprised that the typically easy-going pervert was being so intense.

"Just... trust me on that. It might not _be_ Dumbledore for that matter," he replied.

"All right then," Remus took the note, read it, vanished it with a wave of his wand and then disappeared with a loud crack the moment after.

"Sirius, Hagrid, we have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. But hey," he grinned, trying to relieve some of the tension, "we'll have some sake and beer soon, talk about the good times, and I'll let you read my book, free of charge! How's that sound?"

"Sounds nice, Jiraiya-sama," Sirius chuckled and then vanished with a loud pop.

Hagrid sniffed and nodded his large shaggy head. "Aye, firs' rounds on me. I'll see ya 'round Mister Jiraiya sir!" Hagrid saluted with his bright pink umbrella and then turned and walked off.

Jiraiya turned away from the fallen house and took two steps, on the third he vanished without a sound, as though he had never been there in the first place. Moments after they had left, a single gray-furred fat rat crawled out of the bushes and started searching through the rubble. After some time, the rat shifted and transformed into a fat, shifty-eyed man with a long nose and pointy ears, making him look as much a rat as what he'd just been a few moments prior.

Slowly, he pulled out a single piece of debris from where the most damage of the house had been done. Looking at it in the firelight of the remnants of the explosion that had devastated the building, Peter Pettigrew realized that he now held the Yew and Phoenix feather wand of the Dark Lord Voldemort. He also realized that now four men, four trustworthy and respected men suspected his true allegiance and that he couldn't just show up somewhere with this wand, claiming to have vanquished the Dark Lord on his own, as he'd often done similar things back in school. No, he decided, putting the wand away, he would have to hide.

Still, it shouldn't be a problem for him. After all, what else were rats good for if not finding excellent places to hide themselves until the predators hunting for them went away.

Wormtail transformed back into a rat and ran for his life, plans on where and how to hide running through his mind as he raced from shadow to shadow. Too bad he couldn't fake his death and blame it on one of those four that suspected him, it might have made it easier to hide. Oh well, can't have everything, have to make due with what you got. That's what... that's what James always used to say.

The rat ran on.

_Continued..._


	4. Chapter 4

Konoha, Four Days Later

It had taken Sirius, Remus, Jiraiya and Harry about a day and a half to make the trip from England to the Hidden Countries, which were not so much hidden as they were sub-countries within the UN recognized countries of China, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, the Philippines, and Japan. Konoha was actually in China, but was hidden on all sides by mountains and behind enormous forests that very few ventured into without knowing better. The 'official' governments designated the Daimyos the same way other countries with royalty designated what their 'princes' and other heirs could and couldn't do with what. At the same time, the Daimyos were responsible for a shadow fighting force that the rest of the world would never acknowledge, let alone believe existed in the first place.

Between the samurai, the ninja, and their own public military, all the nations of the South Eastern edge of the Asian continent were well equipped to handle anything coming from overseas, or even further north. If only all the 'hidden nations' and 'public nations' would actually bother working together for any amount of time, they might put more popular places like the Western countries up against the wall.

As it stood, in the same way that the Ministry of Magic was hidden from the Crown, the Prime Minister and all the other Ministries of that government, the Hidden Countries and what their citizens and military forces did was well below the radar of standard government monitoring.

Of course the avid use of Portkeys, Apparition, and traveling in the throats of toads to get across country borders made it even easier. Once they were in the Hidden Countries, they had to get to the land designated for rule by the Fire Daimyo and then to Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, which took an additional two days. Mostly because Jiraiya kept making them stop at every open air hot spring they came across.

Finally, they made it to Konoha's gates, and they all reported in, Jiraiya vouching for the wizards and providing their papers for approval. After that, they walked straight to the Hokage Tower and met with the Hokage. Sirius and Remus were floored to discover that the man they often shared drinks with after a successful mission, Minato Namikaze was now the Fourth Hokage. The old man they'd been used to seeing, who had corresponded with Dumbledore to further develop relations during the alliance, was now retired and spending time with his family and glad to be rid of all the paperwork once and for all.

Once they had given their report, and somber news, Minato... the Hokage, after a brief moment to collect his anger and grief, hastily approved Sirius's appointment as liaison between Konoha and the Ministry of Magic and made it official and everything. He then offered Remus a position as a teacher at the Ninja Academy, to which the werewolf replied that he would have to think about it.

After all the matters of state had been taken care of, Minato invited everyone over to his place that evening, saying that Kushina would love to see them, and that she had a surprise for them.

Sirius and Remus, both experienced pranksters, shared a look, thinking that Minato had a long way to go before he could get one over on them. They later learned that Kushina was actually the prankster of the family. The hard way.

Once at Minato's place, the young Hokage quickly took Harry to Kushina while telling the guys to make themselves comfortable. Sirius shifted into a dog and curled up by the fire, while Remus crashed on the couch and fell asleep almost instantly. They weren't used to being on the run for four days straight and all the events prior to that had taken their toll.

Jiraiya settled in the kitchen with his notebook and bottle of sake. When Minato came back he asked about how his former sensei's book was coming along. To which Jiraiya replied by pulling out a hardback manuscript, which Minato immediately dove into.

"The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja, huh? Interesting title, Jiraiya-sensei," the blond commented as he cracked the book and began to read.

One Year Later

Jiraiya and Sarutobi looked down at the playpen/crib that had been temporarily set up in the Hokage's office. Neither one was smoking nor drinking as they did not want to be held responsible for corrupting or damaging the young. Especially when those young were a barely-starting-to-walk/run toddler and an infant.

"Well this is a fine mess you've gotten us into," Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, growled at his former student.

"Me?" Jiraiya whispered loudly, backpedaling.

"You brought Harry to Minato and Kushina..."

"Per James and Lily's wishes!" he pointed out.

"And less than a year later, Minato and Kushina leave behind their own child. You and Sirius have your work cut out for you, Jiraiya," Sarutobi darkly chuckled.

"I'm not taking the Hokage title," the white-haired sage resolutely shook his head, arms crossed.

"Hm, even if I were to... adopt both children into the Sarutobi clan? Freeing you and Sirius from your... traditional responsibilities?" the old man tempted him.

Jiraiya frowned, "Would you be able to? Really? Without any complications?"

Sarutobi sighed and glanced longingly over at his unlit pipe. "Probably not," he admitted.

"The children of four international heroes, both of them heroes themselves before they could even walk and talk," Jiraiya sighed, rubbing his face. "And Sirius is out tracking Wormtail right now. It's just pure coincidence that I came back to the village when I did! What are we supposed to do, sensei?"

"Well, thanks to my... advisers," he said the title with disdain, "the whole of Konoha now know that the Kyubi has been sealed inside of Naruto and that the Fourth Hokage was the one to seal him away. Thankfully, that's the _only_ fact that has been leaked. The civilian population and any visitors have been fed the line that the Fourth defeated the demon fox permanently."

"So..." Jiraiya trailed off when he caught the look in his teacher's eyes.

"If it were just Naruto, I have a feeling my decisions would be different," the old man sighed. "But Harry... Harry complicates things. I can't let any of the clans adopt either one of them, and their parents wanted them to grow up brothers it seems. If you hadn't brought Sirius and Remus to Konoha, I'd probably force you to hang around for a while, taking care of them. After all, according to Tsunade and Orochimaru, you didn't have a problem taking care of children before."

"Yeah, but..." Jiraiya was sweating and rather pale at the implications.

"Officially," Sarutobi made his decision, "Sirius is the legal guardian of Harry Potter, and _you_ are the legal guardian of Naruto..."

"Ah, you're worried about Minato's enemies then," Jiraiya had stopped sweating by now.

"Namikaze isn't exactly a common name, is it? Even the villagers would know something if we revealed the boy's name as a _Namikaze_, and how long until the boy would be a target for assassination, or kidnapping? And how long would the secret of Naruto being the container for the Kyubi be kept after that? It was all I could do, politically speaking, to pass that law of talking about it an S-Class crime, punishable by immediate execution."

"Well, as popular a ninja Kushina was, her clan name has mostly been forgotten by now," Jiraiya pointed out with a shrug. "And to quiet Dumbledore down, finally, we could hide Harry the same way. After all, even in this part of the world, there are enough names that sound like 'Harry' that so long as the name 'Potter' wasn't attached with it, nobody would think anything of it."

"Hm," the Hokage was nodding his head, agreeing with the argument.

"That would protect both boys from their parents enemies, and make them brothers, also as their parents wanted," he concluded. "Dumbledore is happy, you're happy, and best of all, I'm happy because it means I don't get saddled with taking a baby with me on the road!" He gave his sensei a wide grin.

"Hmph," Sarutobi scoffed at the thought of Jiraiya actually raising a baby, whether here in Konoha, or on the road. After the amusement faded, the sheer incredulity forced him to see the horror behind that scenario. Even if Jiraiya finally grew up and took real responsibility for a younger life that was not capable of supporting itself, the end result of being raised by his most powerful, yet perverse student in all his years...

Naruto sniffled and then shivered in his crib, while a young Harry next to him sneezed and felt a chill. Both adult men merely stood there as the feeling of someone walking over your grave passed through them.

"All right," Sarutobi finally said, standing firm, "I've made my decision."

"Oh?" Jiraiya was curious.

"As I've already said, if it were just Naruto, or even just Harry, my decisions would be greatly altered. But the circumstances we find ourselves in takes into account two young lives, and our responsibility to their parents. And above all else, ensuring that both of them grow up to be strong, healthy people."

Jiraiya nodded, in full agreement.

Giving his pupil a hard look, the Third Hokage of Konoha gave him his orders, "Jiraiya, you have one year to find Tsunade and bring her back to the village, with the responsibility that she is to _assist_ you, Sirius and Remus in raising these boys. _If_," he stressed the word at Jiraiya's look of horror, "you do not find her within that time, _to the day_, starting today," he gestured at the clock that was half an hour after midnight, "you will return to the village to take your post as Fifth Hokage. Or, you could decline, and I revoke your traveling status and place you under house-arrest, with the punishment that you take care of both boys. _Alone_. Alternating with Remus and Sirius of course," the old man chuckled.

"I'll find her right away!" Jiraiya exclaimed, nearly waking Naruto and Harry, but thankfully both were heavy sleepers.

"I'm not finished," the Hokage whispered in return.

Gulping, Jiraiya merely nodded his head.

"During that year, Remus will be the boys primary guardian, and Sirius as soon as he shows up in the village. I'll hire out D-Ranks so the boys will be taken care of. Unfortunately there are a lot more orphans to take care of..." they both sighed in mourning.

"Provided you can bring Tsunade back to the village, you all will move into Minato and Tsunade's apartment building. (Never could understand why they lived in that place, even after he became Hokage...) The boys will join the Ninja Academy at the age of five, each. Make sure neither of them learns the truth until they are both mature enough to handle it."

"When do you think that may be?" Jiraiya pondered.

"When Harry turns 11," was Sarutobi's surprisingly quick response.

"Why would..." Jiraiya started to ask, but then answered his own question, "Because that's when wizards have to start their own training and go off to their schools. So... what about a ninja career?"

Sarutobi just stared at his student. If he'd had a lit pipe in his hands, he'd be puffing smoke like a chimney at the moment. The white-haired sage's eyes lit up with understanding.

"A ninja wizard? Not just a wizard that learned some ninja tricks, but a ninja trained wizard? Loyal and bound to Konoha? Damn. Lets hope no one else of the alliance tries to come up with something like that. Just having wizards on squads boosted our military power by untold amounts. Let's just hope none of the warhawks hear about Harry..."

"There's more," the Hokage whispered. "And by that, I mean that there are more wizards here in Konoha. Three others, to be exact. The civilian lovers of Alastor Moody and Caradoc Dearborn have given birth to a girl and a boy respectively. The fathers never knew, or do not know in Mad-Eye's case, about the children. Also, one of the... victims, of that magical attack on Otafuku city? She came forward about half a year ago, Minato called me in to ask my advice on the matter. It would seem, that through the attack she survived, she conceived the illegitimate offspring of the scion of the Malfoy Family of England. The young boy, only a few months older than Harry here, is sadly now an orphan as well."

"You're not suggesting..." Jiraiya almost raised his voice, but then again he'd seen what the Malfoy family was all about back in England. '_Imperius Curse my warty hyde!_' he thought to himself.

"No," Sarutobi immediately shook his head, "He's already been placed with another civilian couple who actually lost their own child recently, due to a tragic accident, not the... attack. Still, I've ensured that all three will be attending the Ninja Academy. On scholarships of sorts."

"If you live in the village, children are mandated to attend anyway," Jiraiya pointed out. Sarutobi shrugged, fighting a grin.

"So, what's the rest of your plan then?" he asked after a moment.

"Well, that's where you and Tsunade come in actually," the Hokage folded his hands before him, "I need the two of you to form a bond with the boys here. Because when Harry goes to Hogwarts, that's the school he'll be attending, he'll unfortunately have to leave behind his brother. So, I want you to actually go with Harry to England. And then come back while Tsunade goes, and then Remus and Sirius. When you're back here, I'll want you to be encouraging Naruto and revealing to him what he will be uniquely capable of while Harry is learning the same at Hogwarts. Once Harry passes his final exams, they're called NEWTs for some reason, I'll recall him to Konoha and field promote him to chuunin. A fully trained wizard deserves at _least_ that rank."

"Hm, you know this plan is never going to work, right?"

"Eh, what can you expect, I just came out of retirement," the Hokage shrugged and sat down.

"I'm going to go find Tsunade now," Jiraiya pointed at the door.

"You do that. But after you tell Remus to come pick up the boys here," Sarutobi reminded him.

"Sure thing sensei!" Jiraiya called out as he slammed the door behind him.

Both young boys immediately woke up at the loud sound and started crying and screaming their heads off. Sarutobi rolled his eyes towards heaven and prayed/cursed out his dearly departed friends that left behind such very _loud_ children.

_Continued..._


	5. Chapter 5

Four And A Half Years Later

"There he is!"

"Catch him!"

"Don't let him get away!"

"What the...?"

"Where did he go? He was right here! We had him cornered!"

"Spread out! He can't have gotten far! We'll get him for what he did to the Hokage's office..."

"How did he do that anyway? I mean... we didn't even know he was there..."

"Don't let the Hokage hear you admit that."

"Well, yeah of course, but... to cut every piece of paperwork in the Hokage's office into dolly-streamers? And then to decorate the entire _building_ with them?"

"Kid's gonna be an awesome ninja someday... if we don't kill him first."

"I'd still like to know how he did it..."

"We'll be sure to ask him if we can ever catch the kid. How hard can it be to find Harry Uzumaki of all brats? Spread out and find him!"

On the roof of the nearby building, which just so happened to be the Ninja Academy of Konoha, a young boy with messy black hair, laughing emerald-green eyes, and a lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead huddled just out of sight. He waited until all the masked ninja had flickered away and the only traffic down below was the ordinary citizen or off-duty ninja walking along. Then he squeezed his eyes shut and exhaled all at once. Half a moment later there was a sharp crack, like something heavy breaking, and he was gone.

All the way on the other side of the village, in a small apartment, there was another crack, just as loud, and at nearly the same moment as the one on the roof of the Academy. An eyeblink after that, the same young boy stood poised, eyes still clenched shut. Slowly, he peeked one open and then breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he had changed locations and that his current location was exactly where he wanted to be.

It had only been a couple weeks since he found out he could teleport like the adult ninja, only for some reason he never heard about people being able to move as far as he could. He once had gone from the Hokage Monument to the Academy in one go, it was several kilometers between the two, but every time he heard about a ninja using the _shunshin no jutsu_, they only ever went the distance of about half a kilometer or less. Harry stopped thinking about it though when a small body slammed into him from behind.

"ONII-CHAN!" the hyperactive, blond-haired, orange missile screamed, hugging Harry from behind.

"OTOUTO-CHAN!" Harry spun around and swung the smaller boy around, giggling the whole time.

The young brothers spun around and around until they fell down, and when they got back up, the grins they had on their faces never went away. Harry and Naruto Uzumaki, residents of the Uzumaki household were always like this. Most of the time.

"So, did you get it?" Harry asked him.

Naruto grinned extra wide and pulled out two packages of the same product.

"Excellent!" Harry cackled. He then went over and started preparing their dinner, which would be extra special tonight, even if only for the successful execution of a prank combined with a distraction so Naruto could... acquire some needed ingredients for their dinner.

Three minutes and a few salivating seconds later, the ramen was ready and they both tore open their respective packages and dumped the 'Beef and Miso' flavoring, combined with authentic meat and vegetables into their bowls. Tonight, they feasted like no other.

At least until they did it again tomorrow night.

The Next Day

Weasel landed in the dark shadowy corner of the empty hallway within the depths of the Hokage Tower without a noise being heard by any other living soul in the building. His new shunshin technique was a success!

He reached up and carefully removed the Weasel ANBU mask from his head and wrapped it up in the cloak he had been wearing, leaving him in his usual black attire. He pulled out his hitai-ate and placed it around his forehead once more. His dark eyes shot back and forth, attempting to sense any unknown presences, or even any presences at all. When he detected none, he hid away the ANBU cloak and mask and disappeared down the hallway.

Itachi Uchiha stepped out from the entrance/exit hall to the ANBU secret passageways, expression entirely neutral, though anyone that knew him could recognize a glint of some positive emotion in his eyes as he walked calmly down the hallway to the vending machine area, just around the corner from the Hokage's office.

He was somewhat surprised however, (indicated by no more than a third of a heartbeat pause between steps), when he saw a young boy, perhaps a year, three years at the most, older than his younger brother. He had wild raven hair and piercing green eyes and a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead, around which his hair was carefully parted to draw attention to it. The boy was also dressed in cut-off ragged pants that only reached his knees, worn sandal-shoes, and a faded black cloak that looked a size too small for him.

It was not until the boy made a selection on the machine, a very familiar selection, and retrieved his treat that Itachi realized what was happening right before his eyes. It was a tragedy that he had nothing to equate it to. All the wars, the battles, the raw _death_ he had seen in his young life... All the training, the endless, mind-destroying, body-numbing _training_, none of it, absolutely none of it could prepare him for the unprecedented horror being displayed in a terrifying tableau there beneath the indomitable of one of the most advanced Sharingan eyes of the whole Uchiha clan. Nothing like it had ever happened to Itachi before. Never.

This boy... this, insignificant, poor, pathetic, urchin... Oh yes, urchin indeed, small and helpless looking, but containing a lethal sting that will cripple some men and kill most others. This... horrible monster of a ninja's offspring, was performing, nay desecrating, NAY! He was _violating_ an act so heinous that Itachi Uchiha, as an upstanding ninja of Konoha and sworn ANBU agent of the Hokage, very nearly slaughtered the monstrosity of that which breathed and... _violated_ in a vile mockery being demonstrated for all to see and witness.

For the sake of the Hokage, Konoha, and the Fire Nation, perhaps even the entirety of the whole world, Itachi was the only one to bear witness to this... this... this _violation_! Of course this complicated things. In his reflection, upon which lasted the breadth of time it took for the insolent mortal to go from a crouching position to a nearly-standing position, he recalled seeing this young boy and another younger boy go to and from the Hokage's office many times. Many times a week. Many times a day. Sometimes even many times an _hour_!

Furthermore, it was obvious to those trained in the arts of ninja observation that the boy was old enough, and thus more than likely a member of the Ninja Academy of Konoha. This, coupled with his near-constant presence in the Hokage's office, and thus the _Professor's_ attention, complicated matters. Itachi could not, would not be allowed more likely, avenge this... _violation_ at this moment, before it was even completed. Dare he even utter the thought; it had barely even begun.

No, instant gratification and satisfaction from delivering True Justice upon this wretched and vile interloper. No, he was too protected. Less the eldest son of the Uchiha Clan Head wish to give up everything he had in his life, all he had worked for in his career, in his friendships, and perhaps even in his family. The thought was tempting, oh so very tempting, and there may even be a chance that the boy was not as protected as he was thinking, that there may even be some others that would cheer Itachi for his boldness and no doubt flawless execution of True Justice. Perhaps those same would find ways to help him if he got into trouble for... ending this... _violation_.

But no.

The risk was too great. And others would not see it the way _he_ saw it. As it was happening right before him, only he could understand the true depravity, the sheer unadulterated breach that was this... _violation_! They would say he had gone too far, that stress from his young age and position on ANBU had finally gotten to him, that he'd gone insane in a very unhealthy way. (Hey, it's a ninja village, _everybody_ over Chuunin rank is insane) Thus, he was left with the only other thing Uchiha are good at.

Vendetta.

True Vengeance was not True Justice, but it would be sweet all the same. No one had every escaped an Uchiha's vengeance. Some might escape and delay their punishment at the hands of the Uchiha, they might even take the one Uchiha chasing after them down with them, but none had ever escaped an Uchiha's vengeance, and none ever would. There were still some vendettas that were _still_ being planned out that had been instigated by an act of some sort, though none as despicable as this... _violation_ he bore witness for, that had taken place _centuries_ beforehand!

Yes, Itachi could be patient. That was all this would take, time, patience, and his Sharingan. He'd been planning on finding someway to advance his Sharingan to the next level. Perhaps it was time to advance those plans?

Itachi startled, too caught up in his plans for vengeance to notice until just then that the boy's piercing green eyes, the color of a light that meant death during the Wizarding Wars, locked onto the reflection of Itachi's Sharingan eyes. The Uchiha heir hadn't even noticed that his eyes had been activated. He quickly reigned in both his chakra and Killing Intent before the boy turned around.

But turn around he did.

It was too late now, Itachi realized. Perhaps he might have gotten away with a silent kill and still had time to hide the body, but now that the creature was aware of his presence, all stealth options were all but impossible, and Itachi wasn't good enough to perform the near-impossible. Not yet at least.

No, he resigned himself, locking his sworn oath of vengeance into his heart. He must be strong and survive this torment still to come as the... _violation_ continued, this time directly ahead of his eyes so he could not possibly miss a single moment of this atrocity. It was so horrible, he almost shed tears and dared to retreat, no doubt with the emotions of such actions forcing sobs from his throat and chess. He would endure this. He had no other choice... no other choice than... to watch... as this... this _Academy Student_...

… Ate the last Pocky...

Itachi very nearly ripped the youth's head off and stormed off crying out loud all at once. And then... and then the beast with no heart spoke to him.

"Hey," Harry greeted the weasel-faced Uchiha he'd seen around the place a few times. He ripped off the plastic packaging of the candy he'd just gotten from the machine. Tossing the plastic into the nearby waste basket, he turned back to the ninja, who looked like he could either be an upper-classman at the Academy, or even a genin.

"Want some?" he opened the box and held out a couple sticks of the candy.

It was like Heaven's choir opened up with their most joyous and wondrous song just for Itachi Uchiha. At that moment, he felt such overwhelming relief, joy, and happiness that the pride of the Uchiha Clan very nearly fell to his knees and wept from the all-encompassing emotions sweeping through his frail mortal form. All thoughts of vengeance vanished from his mind and heart as though they had never existed. And as far as Itachi Uchiha cared as he sampled a stick of the savory, succulent, delectable, lush, amazing, fantastic, undeniably delicious candy that was and is Pocky, never had such vengeance against such a kind and generous soul ever been contemplated. And certainly not by him.

In fact, he made a new resolution, as he savored the succulent... (you get the idea)... Pocky. Where before, when he misunderstood an act of kindness and the Sharing of Pocky with a violation of stealing Pocky from him, Itachi had been ready to scribe an oath of vengeance upon his heart and dwell on it daily... and probably brood about it for a good solid week... _Now_, now Itachi vowed with very fiber of his being, of his very soul that unto and after his dying breath, he would protect and guide this wonderful boy, who deserved the very best in life for his actions of kindness and goodness and generosity. And then Itachi heard the innocent child speak once more changing everything about Life Itself!

"Hey, this is pretty good. Who knew?" Harry commented, munching down on one of the candy sticks.

Harry Potter had just earned himself a friend for life.

"It's called Pocky," Itachi explained, granting the wisdom of the ages on this innocent babe, swearing with renewed fervor to guard and cherish him for all his life. He hadn't even tasted of the sweet crunchy de-(you get the idea) goodness of Pocky before, and he shared it as though it were nothing. Truly this young one was destined for greatness, with his kindness and generosity alone, he would someday no doubt perform miracles. "It's better if you suck on it first."

"Hm? Really?" Harry grabbed another stick before then holding it out for the nice ninja to take another. He then tried sucking on the frosted end of the stick. And what do you know, it was better. Well, the flavor lasted longer on his tongue, that was for certain. He could really get to like this candy...

And thus began the 54th strangest friendship in all of Konoha.

_Continued... ?_

Author's Notes: This is the last of the pre-written chapters. After this, it's all up to your reviews on where the story should and could go. Please Read and Review and let me know what you think!


	6. Chapter 6

First Day At The Academy

"How come I don't get to go with Oniisan?" Naruto whined, petulantly stomping his feet, arms crossed, eyes glaring out beneath his furrowed brow in a way that was meant to be intimidating, but only made the person it was aimed at squeal 'KAWAAIII!' at him and pinch his whiskered cheeks. "Hey, stop it! Stop it and answer me! Dattebayo!"

"You know perfectly well why, Gaki-bozo!" the big white haired man in red and green kimono and cloak half-screamed at the little blond boy. "Harry is starting at the Ninja Academy, and you're still too young for that. I still think he's too young to be going next year as it is," he 'whispered' to a tall black haired man in a black and gray kimono and robe outfit.

The man in black and gray shrugged, replying, "I'm still against Harry joining the Ninja Academy in the first place. How is it you convinced me to let these two live on their own again, Jiraiya?"

"I can take care of me and Naruto-otouto just fine!" Harry suddenly screamed up at his godfather.

"Is that why you go out and steal instant ramen toppings day after day?" a gray haired and scarred man in tattered robes questioned the young five-year-old.

Harry just shrugged and looked unrepentant as he answered, "We don't steal. Naruto pro-cures special rare items, leaving due com-pen-sation in obvious places while I run in-ter-ference by practicing my skills as a future ninja of Konoha."

"Wow, didn't even flinch, big words and everything," a tall 'big' woman with light blond hair done in a ponytail remarked at the kids. She put her hands on her hips of her gray and navy kimono, pushing back the folds of her green jacket as she asked him, "Been practicing that one in the mirror, eh Harry?"

The dark-haired green-eyed boy just grinned up at Naruto's godmother, saying nothing.

"Why do you do that anyway?" the gray haired man asked, sounding exasperated. "You have plenty of food here, most of it not needing any amount of preparation! And for what does, all you'd have to do is ask and we'd fix you whatever you'd like!"

Harry and Naruto shrugged together and said as one, "Cause then we wouldn't be living on our own then. We'd just be living in different rooms of the same building. We wanna live on our own!"

"But I still wanna go with Oniisan!" Naruto screamed, stamping his foot again.

"KAWAII!"

"Shizune," the 'big' blond sighed, rubbing her forehead tiredly, "stop pinching Naruto's cheeks. Those whisker marks are bad enough already, they don't need further irritation."

"Aww..." the younger black haired woman finally let go of the blond-haired blue-eyed child.

"Thanks Tsunade-obaachan," Naruto mumbled, rubbing his sore cheeks. Thankfully he missed the tick marks on his godmother's face showing up, otherwise he might have preferred going back to Shizune's pinching.

"Are we done yet here, I want to get there before I'm supposed to graduate!" Harry growled.

"Got everything you need?" Sirius asked him.

"Yes!" Harry insisted.

"How about your bento?" Shizune offered the box.

"I swear, you people are worse than every other kids parents sometimes," Harry moaned, exasperated. "Can we go already?"

"Just want to get one more picture!" Remus begged, having already snapped ten rolls worth of pictures.

"THAT'S IT! I'm OUT OF HERE!" Harry exclaimed, closed his eyes tight and wished real hard.

The explosion, what should have been a barely audible crack, actually shattered every piece of glass in the apartment building and the next few over, and knocked everyone in the actual apartment on their asses.

"Did you know he could Disapparate?" Sirius calmly asked Remus.

"No," Remus calmly replied, still clutching his camera, which was now ruined thanks to the shattered lenses. "Did you?"

"Hello? Where have you been living for the past six years? He's hard enough to keep track of as it is, and you think I'm going to show him how he can disappear and reappear wherever he wants?" Sirius's panicked reply very nearly started a panic in and of itself.

"Gentlemen," Tsunade picked the both of them up by the scruff of their necks, "Would you care to hazard a guess as to _where_ exactly our boy went off to?"

"That was SO COOL! Can Nii-san teach me how to do that?" Naruto was begging them all.

"NO!" every single last adult screamed at the young boy, fear running rampant through their minds.

Harry reappeared roughly three feet above the waters of the Konoha Hot Springs. On the women's side of course. Standing to his feet, he got an eyeful of everything that Jiraiya wished he saw with all of his "Research" and then some. Being seven years old at the time, Harry didn't bother to appreciate this unique opportunity. Instead he did what any seven year old would do in similar circumstances, he mimicked his adult peers and followed the advice of the same.

"Helllooo Ladies," he smiled and posed. Of course his pose was much cooler (in his mind) than Jiraiya's, and on a seven year old boy, soaking wet with a silly grin on his face, the pose just made him that much cuter in the eyes of all the naked or near-naked kunoichi. Kunoichi of the Seduction Corp as chance would have it.

As fate would have it, Harry got a first rate ninja education his first day as an Academy Student. Unfortunately, he never quite made it to the actual Academy, which had some of the most powerful ninja in Konoha scouring the whole village for him once he'd been marked absent by the teachers that day. Of course, all that really happened at the Academy for the first day for first time students was that they learned each other's names and sat in a classroom and listened to the teachers lecturing them about what they would be learning during their three required, five recommended years at the Ninja Academy.

Harry, on the other hand, did far more exciting things with his day.

Spending the morning with the Seduction Corp, and learning all their names, (and exact body measurements and sizes), he was shown several pressure points on his own and other people's bodies, and it was thoroughly explained to him what pressure points were, as well as chakra, tenketsus, and the Eight Gates were.

At lunchtime, the lead jounin of the Seduction Corp, and their most senior and well-known member, took him to her counterpart in the Interrogation/Torture Department. There, Harry's education on pressure points, and more importantly ways of crippling another's body, was expanded upon.

After lunch, the head of the IT Department took Harry to his counterpart in the Tracker/Hunter Division, (sometimes privately referred to as Headhunter Division), where it was explained most fervently to young Harry how important it was to keep the body fit, and train it to move quickly over long distances for extended periods of time. Sprints and ninja teleports, or _Shunshin no jutsu_ were fine if you were going from one side of Konoha to another, or dodging an enemy's attack, but if you're going to be running flat out for days at a time, going from one end of a country to the other and beyond, then all that wasted energy would wind up tiring you out before you got even a tenth of the way. Harry was shown the exercises he would need to work on in order to build up his endurance, as well as his overall speed.

Just before dinner, the Head Hunter brought him to the Library of Konoha. He then introduced Harry to one of the Library Ninja that worked there. Despite his small and unassuming stature, Harry believed the Head Hunter when he was told that the Library Ninja before them was one of the best trained ninja in all Konoha, and could probably match a Kage in terms of skill and honed ability. The Library Ninja then showed Harry all the different sections of the Konoha Library and explained to him while showing how knowledge and the wisdom in how to use it was what made a ninja most powerful, moreso than even the most unbeatable jutsu ever created.

When it was time for dinner, the Library Ninja escorted Harry to Ichiraku Ramen, where Teuchi Ichiraku happened to be entertaining a guest. An old friend of his, who just so happened to be a fabled Ninja Cook. Harry immediately pressed for information and any lessons to be learned, seeing as how much he'd learned already from all the people he'd met. Having only just learned the lesson himself quite recently, the Ninja Cook stressed how important it was to have a balanced diet, and never to overeat. He used some examples of ninja that he'd cooked for on long term missions, and how they had tended to gorge themselves on his better recipes, without taking the time to train and work off the pounds they were gaining. They were on a mission of course, and when the ninja on the mission demanded it, he had no choice but to serve it to them, in spite of his own advice, seeing as they could have him killed for interfering with the mission if he did not serve them. Teuchi even showed off a few of his 'Balanced Ramen' recipes, just to show Harry what his old friend meant.

Of course this is where Naruto and everyone else that had been looking for him finally found Harry. All through dinner, and eating the 'Balanced Ramen' Harry cheerfully shared with his brother and uncles and aunts and godfathers and godmothers what he'd learned that day. Naruto insisted that he could hardly wait until he went to the Academy and became a ninja.

Needless to say, Harry's second day of being an Academy Student was not nearly as interesting, and he was sent home shortly after lunch by the teacher, citing that he was an unruly disturbance. Sirius and Remus then spent the afternoon grading Harry on the number and quality of pranks he had pulled off that morning before and during lunch. Naruto laughed along with them as Harry recounted just a few of them.

After that, Harry showed Naruto the exercises that he was starting to do daily and sharing what he'd learned about chakra. Naruto was too young to learn it unfortunately, and Harry was still trying to apply the concepts he'd been shown with the actual practice. That he managed to actually succeed in mixing chakra from his physical and spiritual energies on his third day was overlooked by all his teachers as he also used the taijutsu lesson to beat up one of the bullies that had hurt his brother the day before. Jiraiya and Tsunade, however, were in shock, however, when they learned that Harry had unlocked his chakra a whole month before the standing average, let alone the rest of his classmates.

Of course, after finding the Academy as boring as it was, Harry decided that he would spend as little time as he could there. Therefore on the days that he could afford to (meaning no tests, important assignments, or the others threatening him) he cut class and went about visiting whatever friends he made and learned everything they were willing to teach him. On the other days, he pulled off devastating pranks and got kicked out before the day was even half over and still went to visit his growing number of friends.

More often, he spent time with his new friend Itachi. Harry and Itachi had Ichiraku Ramen every once in a while, and the Uchiha genius considered that if Pocky was Ambrosia of the Heavens, than ramen may very well be the Nectar of the Gods.

_Continued...?_


End file.
